The Forgotten
by LampshadeThis
Summary: Was his kind cursed to suffer never ending war? Optimus reflects on the weight of the responsibilities he's been burdened with and the bitter reality of war. However, when by chance he meets with a seeker the Autobots refer to as 'The Angel of Death' on the battlefield, a brief exchange between them leaves him wondering just how much the pointless conflict had left forgotten.
1. Chapter 1

Edit: some spell checking.

Author's Notes:

I thought I'd never write anything again, but here I am. Oh well. I'm no longer living in a civil war zone nor am I bordering homelessness anymore. Finally 'mostly' okayish.

This is HEAVY AU, and taken from a glance of a science fiction/humanist perspective. If you like realistic interpretations on the hopelessness and pointlessness of war and a deep understanding for what it must feel like to be alive, then this fanfic is for you. If you are just looking for action or fluff, this is not for you.

Also, even though this is heavy AU, it does take some inspiration from Armada and what was originally supposed to be the plot of the movie-verse (thanks for screwing everything you touch, Bay). And yes, Starscream fans, the seeker will be a dual protagonist in this story along with Optimus Pime... yay.

* * *

The story of our kind's accursed struggle,

The rise and sudden fall of our civilization,

It happened all too suddenly, and we never did manage to recover before-

-We all managed to kill one another in our own obsession of proving the other wrong.

Or, perhaps, this was due to the deception of a select few?

Perhaps it was all because of our oppressors?

Or was this was Primus's doing?

Primus, fate, nothingness, the oppressors… Us,

None of it matters,

After all, we truly brought this upon ourselves.

We had our chance for peace, for forgiveness…

… We brutalized it.

Is it too late for our people to find forgiveness?

Can we still learn to love one another?

Or is this truly the end of our people?

* * *

Seven vorns before our planet was invaded by a close adversary we never knew was so well hidden from us, a young Seeker from a kingdom shrouded in mystery _ Vos _ had advocated for something that was only shared with the short lived Seeker race…. The numerous races of Cybetron should forfeit their immortality, destroy the AllSpark- the artifact he concluded to be trapping our race into a meaningless existence, and to free their sparks and become mortals just like the Seekers.

The highly fundamentalist council that represented two thirds of Cybetron's countries ignored the mech at first. After all, who would want to give up on living for hundreds of thousands of vorns in exchange for living barely thirty five vorns if they were lucky?

It seemed that, at the time, they did not take in consideration the trade-off that came with giving up immortal life…

A freed spark,

A spark with a unique charge,

A Positive Charged Spark, a Negative Charged Spark, or Neutral Charged Spark,

A biological gender.

The ability to procreate life without the dependency on the artifact the council held an iron grip on the planet with… The AllSpark began to seem less and less holy within less than a single vorn as the sight of a sparkling- a living transformer born from the spark of its two parents was more than enough to encourage a movement within numerous neutral and council-oppressed countries.

The Seeker- Dino, whom the Council spitefully began referring to as Savage attached a name for 'his' movement:

Predacons.

A name that well acknowledged the fact that the upper caste- council loving- death fearing transformers viewed 'him' and his followers as a bunch of primitive- backward animals, and Dino took full advantage of that distaste and twisted it to his movement's favor. Boasting a symbol for his Predacon movement: A golden V shaped head that seldom knew was a character from a long forgotten seeker language meaning 'Freedom'

The Predacon movement spread to the autonomous country of Kaon. At the end of the very same vorn, the movement's base of operation was moved away from Vos and was re-established in Kaon's capital: Helex.

This sudden spread to Kaon was a nightmare for the council. They hadn't expected the planet's largest country in land area to suddenly side with a 'mech' that advocated for 'death'.

* * *

Teletraan-1 Reports:

5.7 vorns before the invasion:

Free thinkers, scientists, philanthropists, philosophers, and writes begin joining the movement in masses.

5.5 vorns before the invasion:

The council issues arrest warrents for any transformer suspected of being a sympathizer within the council-held countries.

5.2 vorns before the invasion:

Dino appoints two 'mechs' as his advisers: An Iaconian scientist named Shockwave and Kaonian warrior named Sixshot.

5.182 vorns before the invasion:

The High-Council in Iacon issues a death warrant on Shockwave.

4.92 vorns before the invasion:

Polyhex joins the movement and renounces allegiance to the council, and establishes a base for the Predacons in its capital city: Darkmount.

4.9 vorns before the invasion:

Darkmount becomes the third Predacon capital.

4.8-4.5 vorns before the invasion:

The High-Council in Iacon declares war on the Predacons and demand their immediate surrender.

Darkmount's shores become a makeshift defense fort.

Sixshot advises Dino to arm, Shockwave is unsure- but agrees.

A 'mech' from Vos called Deadlock is appointed Commander on Fort Darkmount along with two Generals: A Polyhexian 'mech' called Lockdown and a Vosian 'femme' called Cyclonus.

The council lose the battle of Darkmount.

4.2 vorns before the invasion:

After much cohesion, Tarn joins the Predacon movement.

3.9-3.6 vorns before the invasion:

Six battles occurr between both sides with casualties higher on the Immortals' end.

Shockwave takes Sixshot's friend, a young 'carrier' from Kaon named Soundwave as a 'sparkmate'.

One fifth of the population on Cybetron is now mortal.

3.5 vorns before the invasion:

A temporary cease fire is agreed upon by both sides with two third council senate approval in the hopes of sparking negotiations.

Predacons agreed to halt their spread as negotiations begin.

Two fifths of the planet's surface area is under the control of the Predacons due to their spread across the largest countries by land area.

3.2 vorns before the invasion:

Alpha Trion, head of the senate is assassinated.

Negotiations are temporarily halted- but the cease fire is still in effect.

3.17 vorns before the invasion:

Shockwave is abducted by the High Council.

3.15 vorns before the invasion:

Predacon sympathy grows heavily within Iacon.

3.12 vorns before the invasion:

Soundwave sparked a 'carrier' sparkling; 'Ravage'

3.11 vorns before the invasion:

First battle occurrs in which the Predacons attack Council-held territories.

3.10 vorns before the invasion:

A severely disfigured and tortured Shockwave is rescued.

A lead medical scientist, an Iaconian 'femme' called Ratchet joins the Predacons.

A police chief from Torus, a 'mech' called Arcee, joins the Predacons.

2.9-2.7 vorns before the invasion:

Lockdown takes Ratchet as a 'sparkmate.'

The Predacons win two more battles.

The Predacons lose a battle on Tyger Pax's borders.

2.5-2.47 vorns before the invasion:

Ultra Magnus calls for immediate peace talks.

Predacons are apprehensive.

Immortals are apprehensive.

2.43 vorns before the invasion:

A 'token of peace' is proposed for both sides: The current Prime shall forfeit sole ownership to a relic known as The Matrix and become a mortal. Each Prime shall be 'born' from that point on.

Predacons are displeased with this suggestion, but reluctantly agree.

2.41 vorns before the invasion:

Current Vosian Winglord's only child_ a young and reluctant 'carrier' Seeker called Nexus is to be wedded to the now mortal 'mech' of a Prime called Sential.

A Seeker 'mech' called Galvatronus protests the planned bonding. His protests are largely ignored.

2.39 vorns before the invasion:

The bonding ceremony is held.

2.37 vorns before the invasion:

The First Cybetron World War is officially over.

1.9 vorns before the invasion:

Optimus Prime, a 'mech' is born to Nexus and Sential Prime.

1.7 vorns before the invasion:

Dino takes a 'femme' Seeker called Nightscream as his 'sparkmate'

1.5 vorns before the invasion:

Deadlock takes a 'Carrier' Seeker called Wing as his 'sparkmate.'

1.15 vorns before the invasion:

A 'femme' Seeker called 'Windblade' is born to Deadlock and Wing.

1.09 vorns before the invasion:

Reports of odd distortions occurring in Cybetron's solar system.

1.04 vorns before the invasion:

More reports, closer to Cybetron's sun.

0.9 vorns before the invasion:

A fleet led by Lockdown is sent to investigate.

0.7 vorns before the invasion:

Communications with the entire fleet is lost.

0.68 vorns before the invasion:

A brief distress signal from Cyclonus is sent.

0.67 vorns before the invasion:

All fleet crew is reported dead, barring a few that aren't yet confirmed to have their signals extinguished.

0.66 vorns before the invasion:

Ratchet demands an investigation. The request is denied.

0.63 vorns before the invasion:

After much protest, a naval fleet is sent to investigate.

0.47 vorns before the invasion:

The crew of the navel fleet is reported dead, barring some that are under the status of missing.

0.43 vorns before the invasion:

The AllSpark was compromised and destroyed after an unidentified flying object suddenly warped into Simfur's airspace and launched an attack on the Temple of Primus. Strange almost bi-pedal techno-organic looking creatures emerged from the craft and raided the temple.

Upon destroying the AllSpark, the strange creatures selectively killed the defending forces against the invaders. Whom they didn't kill from the soldiers and surrounding civilians, they abducted into their craft and vanished.

Tremendous physical strength and endurance was noted.

All of Cybetron is now mortal.

0.427 vorns before the invasion:

An alien threat was recognized, most likely answer behind the doomed fleets.

0.425 vorns before the invasion:

Upon full investigation of the carnage site, it was noted that only 'mechs' and 'femmes' were killed. 'carriers' weren't found among the dead. Suspicions that the missing crew members are all 'carriers' rose.

0.414 vorns before the invasion:

Suspicions confirmed.

0.39 vorns before the invasion:

Cybetron begins preparing for a possible planetary invasion.

0.35 vorns before the invasion:

Fire arms training becomes mandatory for all adult citizens.

0.29 vorns before the invasion:

Enemy scout craft sighted.

0.26 vorns before the invasion:

Sparklings are to be sent to shelters.

0.24 vorns before the invasion:

A survivor from the naval fleet makes it back in a mentally disturbed state. Upon medical examinations (Classified)

0.22 vorns before the invasion:

Carriers are to be sent shelters along with the sparklings immediately.

0.2 vorns before the invasion:

Cybetron is prepared for an invasion, strange aliens have been dubbed 'Quintessons.'

0.16 vorns before the invasion:

One fifth of Cybetron is in sheleters, only some carriers made it to the shelters due to the dire need of workers to run the planet's infrastructure, factories, and energon mining fields while the adult Mechs and Femmes prepare for planetary warfare.

0.12 vorns before the invasion:

Martial law is established to prevent mass panic after a scout craft warped into Cybetron's airspace and abducted Carrier civilians.

0.1 vorns before the invasion:

Enemy fleet enters Cybetron's solar system.

0.09 vorns before the invasion:

Order is violently maintained.

0.07 vorns before the invasion:

WMDs are being prepared for launch.

0.04 vorns before the invasion:

Cybetronian fleets are sent out.

0.02 vorns before the invasion:

War for Cybetron is declared on all media to have begun.

* * *

Optimus Prime shut the data pad off and hastily sat it on his berth-side table. The currently mask-less red and blue semi was sitting on his berth side, face in his servos, digits rubbing his template to ease his mental exhaustion. For a brief moment, he disabled his Autobot cyan optics in favor of real optic colors as he peeked back at the data pad.

No matter how much he tried to bring himself to read the logs recorded during the invasion again, he couldn't. He had hoped that his run-in with that Seeker that took place on the planet him and his soldiers currently established their base on would somehow pique his morbid curiosity to understand just how horrific the invasion was.

There was no point in reading the logs that took place after the invasion. He had read every log related to Dino's assassination, and the Decepticon coup on SixShot by Megazarak in every detail.

Optimus fully acknowledged that the evacuation of Cybetron's civilians post the invasion and right at the start of the Second Cybetron World War to an empty habitable planet on a nearby solar system was a mutual agreement between both the Decepticons and the Autobots to keep the remnants of their civilization intact as they waged their war on Cybetron- and now guerrilla fights on the human occupied planet: Earth.

The Decepticons are a catastrophe that he has the actual hope to put a halt to. Optics cyan once more, Optimus got off his berth with a tired sigh and and a brief sad glance towards the data pad. His face mask slid back on, hiding his tired face.

Optimus headed out of his berthroom and locked the key panel. He headed directly to the command room, nodding back and responding to the 'Good Morning Sir' he received from his fellow Autobots.

He had people to protect.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Now before you murder me for making Ratchet a 'femme' and Arcee a 'mech', keep in mind how many time mechs were femmes and vise versa in some iterations of the official Transformers cartoons.

I always found the notion that Transformers living for millions of years to be bizarre and often wondered how disturbing it would be to live for 'too long'.

The story will begin normally with the next chapter.

Leave your thoughts in reviews, ask your mind (because I spent five hours writing this non-stop and it's four am now. Feeling too tired to leave a proper A/N or proof read)


	2. Chapter 2

First Encounter:

Earth; July 21st 1983

Allegheny Mountains, West Virginia

"Would you guys get a move on! C'mon, we don't have all day you know!"

Herbert, a part-time camp counselor and full time biology college student scowled at the group of children he was trying to guide back to the campsite. One of three children had apparently convinced two others to dwell deep into the woods in hopes of finding the wild onions Herbert mentioned a day prior. The idiot responsible for this insubordination, Rylee, blinked sheepishly and nodded along with the other two idiots; Dylan and Ethan.

The three hurried along and dared not protest. Herbert made a mental note to himself to convince the camp director to expel Rylee from the camp. This was a school camp, and her parents hadn't paid a cent for their stupid daughter to be here, they'll surely be __gladdened __to take her back home and give her the lecture of her life.

'God, I hate children' Herbert muttered under his breath as he pulled a pair of clippers to clear away thorny bushes. Last thing he wanted was for the scent of cuts to attract wild animals or Lyme Disease carrying ticks.

"You think you're a man now that you're twenty?" The damnable girl sneered at him and the idiots following her jeered along. Herbert grit his teeth, but said nothing. He cleared the path and mentally cursed himself for accepting this job in the first place.

"Do you know where we're go-"

"-YES! NOW SHUT UP AND JUST FOLLOW!" Herbert snapped at the coward of a boy, Dylan. The timid boy whimpered and hurried along his two friends.

Herbert turned to clip the next set of thorny branches…

"Wait" he waved for the children to halt their movement.

"What's wrong" Rylee asked, but Herbert placed an index finger on his lips prompting the children to remain silent. 'Something sounds off" Herbert said quietly, his voice laced with caution.

**__**BOOOOOOM**__**

Herbert immediately tackled the children to the ground in an effort to shield them from the falling twigs and wood scraps. That had definitively sounded like an explosion, and in a place like this it could only mean there were illegal loggers around. He needed to get the children to safety right away, he didn't even want to think about what those loggers might do if they saw the stranded children.

"Get up!" Herbert ordered the group as he got up and removed the largest wood fragments that had cut into his skin- ignoring the exposed wounds. The children looked properly horrified.

"We, need to run, now!" He began jogging in the opposite direction of the explosion that came from the hills to their east and into the thickest woodlands to his left. The children followed, Ethan remarking that they are getting further from the camp now.

Herbert shook his head. He was no fool, getting to the nearest road and gas station was the right call to make. Besides, he perfectly knew his way around those woods and where Sammie's gas station was located at.

Get himself and the children to the gas station in one piece, call the police and fire department and notify them of what just happened.

"Umm… Herbert-"

"It's counselor!" Herbert corrected Rylee as they were running.

"Your leg is bleeding bad…" Herbert looked down and indeed the visible gash on his right leg was oozing blood slowly. His sock and boot covered in the sticky-drying blood.

'I know' Herbert whispered solemnly.

**__**BOOOM**__**

**__**CLAANK**__**

This time they stopped and hunkered down for the sounds to cease.

Except it never did. The sounds were getting LOUDER, and to make matters worse, they could now hear metal clanking and the sounds of heated metal sparks.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit' Herbert mentally cursed as he realized that things have gone south and they may not be able to make it out in time as safely as he thought they'd be. And his injured leg wasn't helping him either.

"Are we being attacked by Russia!" The timid boy, Dylan, practically squealed. Ethan shook his head, Herbert said a simple "No" and Rylee explained that the Air Force would be here by now if that was indeed the case.

Rylee, slipped her sling bag off her back and sat down next to Herbert as she pulled out a first aid kit. Dylan watched in nausea as Rylee and Ethan hurriedly cleaned, pressed, then dressed the wound.

Feeling grateful to the children for once in the three weeks that he has known them, Herbert uttered a weak thank you and accepted the hands outstretched to him to help him on his feet. He limped on Rylee and Ethan and the four began their desperate attempt at fleeing whomever was causing the destruction.

Birds and mammals were fleeing to the woods ahead of them. Herbert lowered his head as the children shrieked upon hearing tremors that were increasing by the moment- as though it were a series of earthquakes he fully know couldn't happen in this region. Something was terribly off, and he began to wonder if Dylan wasn't being so paranoid.

One thing for sure, he was slowing the children down, and it wasn't like there was any place for them to hide. He stopped limping. Head hung down, lips curled back into a pained frown…. He needed to be the responsible adult here.

"You kids run ahead-"

"NO!" came the combined response from the children. Even Dylan surprised him with what he said next:

"You scoured the woods to find us after we got lost, we can't just leave you behind!"

Herbert's brown eyes shone in both shock and admiration. He smiled sadly. He knew that he shouldn't let the children stay in this area, and the trees behind them were shaking heavily as they now could clearly hear crossfires… The Russians indeed..

"Rylee… Lead those two idiots away from here… NOW!" He screamed at the girl hoping that she'd listen and guide the lesser experienced children away from here. He tried again "This an order from your counselor, get out NOW!"

The girl was on the edge of tears with water welling up in her eyes. Dylan was outright crying, and Ethan was gasping in horror. Finally, and thankfully, she nodded and helped Herbert to the ground despite the two boy's protests.

"We'll definitely bring back help!" She said shakily as the tears streamed down the terrified girl's cheeks.

Herbert nodded and smiled weakly. 'Brave kid', he complimented her in his mind. "Now go" he ordered her. She turned around hesitantly and grabbed a shoulder on each of the boys and shouted to them to run.

Herbert's sad smile quickly faded when something happened to make him feel as though the world had stilled around him. A missile flew right above them- he clearly saw a purple head shaped ensign printed on it. The children halted, Rylee tackled the boys back and yelled something that he couldn't hear for his ears were ringing terribly from the loud rocket sound.

The missile exploded a little ahead and he felt his head lighten as a result of the shock wave from the explosion. Nausea then dread quickly overtook him once the cloud of smoke and wood dust cleared a little. He turned to his left to the children with minor cuts and scrapes, but they were alive and unharmed.

They were all far from safe however.

He could smell the smokes of the fire that had just ignited ahead. His heartbeat hastened tremendously and his blood ran cold when he heard a booming- yet raspy metallic ****voice ****behind him

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

The tremors…. Herbert realized the instant he braved to turn his fear stricken face around.

They were footsteps..

A pained choke escaped his sore throat as his mind desperately tried to grasp exactly __what__ he was looking at.

Some kind titanic winged humanoid with a metal like exoskeleton. The creature staring him down had a pair of crimson red eyes affixed to him. It seemed to have a face, but it looked as though it was hidden behind what he could describe as a snow white face mask, and its head seemed to be protected by some sort of cherry red helm that had two protruding fins at its head. Its body looked slightly curvaceous with its hourglass-like form. Cherry red hip 'v' shaped plating ended off at the creature's pale gray mid thighs but was open on both sides of its hips forming some sort gladiator-like kilt at a distance even though the plating was clearly attached to its hips and upper thighs. Its long and lithe pale gray legs ended at its knees with cherry red and white armored 'boots' that had what seemed like back pipes in the shape of clawed spikes and two (weapons?) attached on both sides of its 'boots'. Its abdomen was covered in snow white plating with two maroon streaks running down its body and crossing at its midsection then crossing out into its hips and disappearing into the gladiator kilt-like plating. At the upper section of its abdomen was yellowish orange bulge that reflected light off like it was made of a glass like composition.

The winged creature was holding a long broad sword in its right arm, which like its legs, was mostly 'exposed' save for the cherry red gantlet-like armor from the elbow down to its clawed hand. Its other arm was fully 'armored' with no thin pale gray surface visible. Instead, its arm was clad in heavy boxy snow white armor that supported the weight of a weight of an elongate triangular shaped weapon that ran the length of its arm that ended with another clawed hand.

But its wings, those massive white appendages that extended out of its back and ended with a curved tip. A single red streak ran down the center of each wing and halted at the familiar purple ensign before resuming to end of the wing. There was an appendage beneath its left wing that resembled the broad sword it was already wielding in its right hand.

An untrained eye would think they were looking at a robot, but Herbert was certain that this creature that stood over thrice his own standing height was something else entirely.

It looked majestic, yet deadly.

It approached him, sword ready to strike.

"You saw too much" it simply said before raising its sword to bring it down on him.

'hmmm-'

The winged creature halted and both it and Herbert turned to the direction of the whimpers.

Herbert felt his heart sink. The creature just saw the unconscious children-

"Ple-a, please… do-don't" Herbert begged weakly.

Something in the creature's crimson eyes glowed differently. It was looking directly at the children.

"Th-they didn't… see you" Herbert begged again, his eyes welling up with tears of worry. The last thing he wanted to see before he died was for the children to be maimed by this creature of death.

It just continued to stare at the children, seemingly immobile.

To Herbert's horror, Rylee's eyes cracked open, fully seeing the creature before her. She looked so terrified, she couldn't scream… However, it wasn't truly the winged creature she was looking at. No, it was rather what was standing in the woods ahead.

A laser shot fired, burning through the air.

The winged creature dodged it, but both it and Herbert realized that the burning plasma was about to hit directly next to the children- they were going to be incinerated!

"__AUUUUGH!"__

A guttural cry escaped the wing creature, their back and wings sustaining heavy burns from the plasma shot while its body laid hunkered in front of the children.

Herbert gasped, his jaw line stiff.

The creature that was about to kill him had shielded the children with its own body.

The creature that fired the shot stepped ahead, and it looked more intimidating to Herbert than the winged creature. The massive blue eyed titan of a creature, a blue and red humanoid with a glowing blaster trained at the winged creature.

Herbert didn't know exactly how much adrenaline his body pumped to get him up. He ran so fast towards the winged creature, stood in front of them, and faced the red and blue titan with hate filled eyes. At the very least the winged one was considerate enough to protect three helpless children, this titan didn't care if it hit the wrong target.

"__BAAACK OFFFFF!"__

The titan froze in place, its 'pupil' rings shrunk.

Herbert didn't want this titan near the children, he screamed at it again.

_"___LEAVE IT AND THE CHILDREN ALOOONE!"__

Three different whimpered cries were heard. The children, they were all awake!

The winged creature enveloped its arms around them, and the titan caught glance of a human child behind one of the winged creature's wings.

Something in the titan's eyes changed in the very same manner with the winged creature. It looked horrified, Herbert noted, as though it had just walked into a murder scene. The glow in the titan's weapon died off.

'Did it just… disarm its weapon?'

Herbert felt pained murmurs behind him and turned to see the winged creature shaking like a leaf from pain.

"What have I done…"

The titan behind Herbert spoke. Herbert turned back to it and glared hard.

_"___TOO FUCKING MUCH YOU BASTARD"__ he swore at the titan.

The titan was about to say something when a radio transition picked up from the titan's left arm

::Prime, is everything alright on your end? Is the Death Angel nearby?::

Herbert glanced up at the winged creature that had turned its head to look at the titan with panicked eyes.

The titan remained silent.

::Prime?::

Finally it spoke back to the 'creature' on the transmission line.

::Negative, Prowl, I have no visual on Starscream::

Starscream gasped in confusion, and so did Herbert.

'Did this tit- did Prime just… Let the- Starscream be?'

The radio transmission line broke off. 'Prime' and 'Starscream' stared at one another with perplex. Neither said anything until the children in Starscream's arms began crying.

"Starscream… you should go"

".…. Fair enough, Prime"

Starscream turned around and gently laid the three crying children down next to Herbert. The children quickly clung back to Starscream's arm.

"Don't leave us with that monster! Please, don't!"

Hilbert heard a pained wince from Prime's direction.

Starscream chuckled darkly despite the pain and shook its head. "He wouldn't harm you" It said as it looked back at Prime who was gazing at the five of them with guilt ridden eyes. Starscream stood up shakily. Prime stepped ahead with an outstretched arm to help it, but it swatted his hand away.

_"___Do Not Touch Me"__

Prime backed off, muttering a silent apology to Starscream.

"Wha… what the hell!?" Herbert blurted out, he was dangerously close to having a panic attack. Starscream looked down towards him and the children with hollow eyes.

"... Trust me, he won't harm you"

Starscream, limping on its sword, opened a transmission line:

::Starscream to Skywarp, I need you to bridge me for a short distance from the coordinates I'm sending you. I want you to warp me out right after::

::Star… Is everythin-::

::JUST DO AS I SAY::

::R-r-right. Receiving coordinates n-now!::

It took three seconds for Starscream to de-materialize from where it was standing. Herbert had counted the seconds.

And his world turned to white noise as a panic attack took its hold on him.

* * *

::Optimus to Ratchet. I need the immediate presence of human medical professionals at the base and a ground bridge direct to base::

::What the slag happened Optimus!?::

::…. Crossfire that resulted in four human witnesses::

::Red Alert to Prime. I'm on Ratchet's transmission. When did the crossfire take place and with whom?::

::I did not have clear visual. All I know is that a plasma shot of mine accidentally injured a band of humans I wasn't aware were present there..::

::…. I see… Any sighting of the Death Angel?::

::No, none::

::Understood and documented.. Sending ground bridge to your coordinates now. Jazz is contacting the Federal Bureau to notify them of the current situation. A full report by both you and the humans is required upon their recovery::

::Understood; Red, Ratchet. Prime out::

Optimus Prime cut the comm transmission and sighed painfully. He turned to face the three younglings and their now lucid caretaker, Herbert. Optimus fully explained to the group that he was going to falsify the report and asked them to act along when the time came for them to report the events that just took place.

If his fellow soldiers knew of the injuries he had afflicted upon the Seeker, they would have set out to finish the job before the Seeker could recover. Optimus knew that the Seeker had a high death warrant on the Autobot watch for being the single most lethal Decepticon. But Optimus was no Decepticon, and had he killed the Seeker right then and there, he would have become no better than Megatron.


	3. Chapter 3

Base Line:

Their whole body hurt like the pit.

Starscream doubled over in pain and collapsed to their knees moments after they were warped to an abandoned farm. Starscream was in so much pain, they could barely make out their surroundings, and they couldn't bring themselves to wail from the pain, for Autobots would hear them and come for the kill. Their sword dropped to the ground as their sensory input system began to flicker.

Hud messages flooded Starscream's static filled line of view, warning them that they are in immediate need of shock and fluid therapy.

More warnings popped up on their hud:

__Critical Burn Damages Spanning 37% of Left and Right Wing Surface Area. Immediate Medical Attention Required.__

__Send Distress Signal?__

__Yes__

__No__

Starscream declined. If they sent out the signal now, the Autobots would take notice. There had to be at least one Autobot communications technician out there, waiting for a Decepticon transmission line to wiretap, which is why they contacted Skywarp directly through a peer to peer based comm line exclusive to their trine.

Almost as if they heard Starscream's thoughts, the black and purple Seeker,Skywarp, teleported right in front of the severely damaged seeker. Starscream couldn't see the panicked horror etched on Skywarp's face.

"Holy Primus, Starscream!"

"Wh-wha!" Skywarp rushed to Starscream's side. Although timid_ and childish _ Skywarp knew that they didn't have a moment to contemplate their trinemate's current state for Skywarp literally had seconds to warp themselves and their trinemate away from here and back to their current stronghold to bridge back to the base from there. The Autobots should have definitively picked up the sudden energon signal that Skywarp emitted by teleporting dangerously close to the Autobot front-line side.

Acting on instinct, Skywarp gripped onto both Starscream and the sword on the grassy ground and teleported out of the farm before any Autobot could spot them.

* * *

Optimus Prime was welcomed to the base by multiple optics and 'eyes' of Autobots and humans alike. Medical personnel of both species rushed towards him and the four humans behind him. Optimus hadn't turned around to check on them yet, but notice that they were all silent.

Understandable, even he would have found himself speechless from the surreal surroundings of this base had he been in their peds.

Human military rarely had that large of a presence within the Autobot base itself. However, since the Decepticons decided to mine energon too close to the Autobot's secret base of operations, the Pentagon had contacted the Autobot base and demanded immediate action to be taken to stop the mining from taking hold.

This is the first time in which they had successfully stopped the Decepticons from establishing a mining site (even if the Autobots did manage to take over it or destroy, the Decepticons would have still been stocked up by then) since both factions arrived on Earth nearly two years ago.

All because Starscream couldn't be present to stop the Autobots. Because the seeker took a plasma shot square in the back.

"Prime"

Prowl's flat and calculated voice snapped Optimus out of his momentary mulling. Optimus tilted his helm to his right and saw the four humans being taken away to the makeshift human clinic.

The black and white Praxian, Prowl, was standing in the center of the Ground Bridge Control Room. The glow of Prowl's Autobot cyan optics looked almost ice blue in the dimness of the Ground Bridge Control Room. One of the two other Autobots standing in the room shared a similar distant glower to his eyes. The eyes of the Forged.

Although Forged transformers' optics always seemed so far removed from their surroundings, Optimus found Prowl's optics to stand out the most in terms of how __off__ the enforcers and SIC's optics were.

Prowl was the oldest Forged in the Autobot army, a one hundred and thirteen thousand and nine hundred and seventy eight vorns old cybetronian.

A living fossil.

Optimus couldn't wrap his twelve vorn old processor around that lifespan no matter how hard he tried, and it made him feel alienated by the enforcer- most Forged.

Optimus hadn't personally appointed Prowl as his Second In Command Officer. The decision was made by the Autobot high command two vorns prior as a majority vote. However, Optimus was fully aware of the bias in the decision making. Forged were being favored over the Sparked by citing the wisdom of the Forged as an attempted justification. Only Optimus and the current Ultra Magnus were Sparked out of the then seven-now-four Autobot Commanders.

If he could, Optimus would discharge Prowl from his current rank as Second In Command in a sparkbeat.

"Prowl" Optimus nodded to Prowl, then greeted Foreign Relations Chief: Mirage_the red ex-Iaconian High Council Senator, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Timmathy Reynolds, Marine Captain Adam Kurts, and First Aid: the burgundy and pastel white medic-in-training. The young medical professional nodded and hurried to Optimus's side to begin a surface diagnostic check before Optimus could begin addressing the Autobots and humans. Upon completing the scan, Optimus gave the fellow Sparked, First Aid, a polite thank you and dismissed her to go back to the med bay.

"Status report?" The ancient Praxian asked as soon as the group began to walk out into the hallway.

The fabricated half-truth Optimus had crafted along with the four humans was on the tip of his glossa, and he was fully aware of just how badly Prowl was going to react to it.

"After I left my post at the eastern base of Mount Spruce Knob along with Bumblebee and Hotshot to shadow what I had suspected to be a Seeker. I ordered both scouts to move ahead and take track with each being on one of the two hills along the valley, but away from where they could be spotted.

I kept chasing the Seeker down the tree shrouded valley and into the forest ahead. Due to the poor luminosity, I hardly could make up much of the Seeker's frame at a distance. From there I fired at the Seeker and hid my position in the forage.

The Seeker did not teleport away- excluding the chances of it being Skywarp-"

"-Why did you assume that the seeker could be Skywarp?" Prowl interjected as he unlocked the panel for the conference room gate.

'Cunning' Optimus thought.

"The Seeker was lithe and small framed, it couldn't have been a mech Seeker"

The Lieutenant Colonel was about to say something as the group entered the conference room, but was cut off by Prowl before he could speak.

"So a carrier or a femme Seeker? Which means it could have been the Death Angel-"

Prime lifted a servo to cut him off in retaliation for snubbing a high ranking human officer, a demeaning behavior Prowl was prone to do.

The Autobot officers sat on their appropriate chairs while the human officers climbed a series of stairways at the other side of the room to reach their 'eye' to optic level at the other end of the table where they took their seats.

Prime motioned for the Lt. Colonel to speak. A ghost of scowl momentarily twitched on Prowl's lips.

"Prime, do you have any suspicions that this Seeker was The Red Flyer? An energon signal was suddenly reported two miles from the position you were bridged back from. The location is being investigated as we speak. The signal disappeared seconds after it had emerged, and the site was found empty.

If you are certain that the Seeker you were after wasn't Skywarp, then it could be almost certain that the Seeker you were chasing after was The Red Flyer."

It amazed the Prime just how perceptive Lt. Colonel Reynolds was.

"How could you be certain?" Mirage crossed his arms and continued "The signal is yet to be decoded for designation match"

Reynolds replied back with certainty.

"Since The Red Flyer has two trinemates: Thundercracker and Skywarp, and that the Seeker Prime chased after wasn't a male, Thundercracker would be ruled out of the possibility of being present during throughout the pursuit. If the mysterious Seeker wished to escape the Prime undetected, she or they would communicate directly through a private comm line with a trinemate to avoid detection.

Now say the Seeker in question managed to bridge the short distance of two miles through a short distance Ground Bridge, say direct to a makeshift base, that base would be immediately detected.

And since there are only three confirmed Decepticons capable of operating short distance sender-to-receiver Ground Bridges; Soundwave, Laserbeak, and Skywarp, the former two would be ruled out since the seeker would have never been able to contact them without having the comm line transmission detected that close to Autobot communications technicians.

So, it would be logical to assume that The Red Flyer had contacted Skywarp through their trine link, bridged a short distance away, and then had Skywarp teleport them back to their base without compromising their location."

Silence filled the room.

Prowl looked dumbfounded, and it showed through on his faceplates. The Praxian had terrible control over three emotions: rage, pride, and envy. And now he had his pride compromised by a fragile __fleshling__, which caused his pent up anger and jealousy to bubble up.

Optimus, on the other hand, was smiling under his mask. He admired the Air Force officer's intrigue in Cybetronian culture and lifestyle, namely that of Seekers. It would have taken Red Alert's team till the end of the day to come up with the same conclusion Reynolds had come to in minutes.

Reynolds was the one to nickname Starscream as 'The Red Flyer' after a battle that took place four months ago in Arizona between the Air Force and Decepticon fliers. When Optimus asked the Lt. Colonel for the reason behind this nickname, the Lt. Colonel informed him of what the Decepticon Air Commander had done on the battlefield that day:

When a pilot had ejected from his plane before it pummeled below after getting hit by a Seeker, the same Seeker had transformed into bipedeal mode in midair and shot the pilot.

The Decepticon Air Commander had then changed course and dove directly towards the killer, transformed, and slashed the killer across the face with one of their swords. The Air Commander had then issued a transmission requesting for immediate ceasefire.

When the Decepticon Seekers stopped engaging with the Air Force pilots, the pilots ceased their attack as well. Starscream had then given permission for military medical professionals to enter the Decepticon front for the sake of retrieving the downed pilot's body only.

Two days after the funeral was held for Captain. James A. Greene, the battle resumed.

No more pilots in the open air were shot nor were anymore military civilians on the ground shot for the duration of the battle.

Three days after the battle had ended, news broke out that the Decepticon Commander, Megatron, was not present on Earth throughout the duration of the battle. Megatron's Second in Command_Starscream_ was acting Commander during the battle.

And that was around the time when Reynolds' acting commander back then had muttered something along the lines of the Decepticon Air Commander being a Decepticon 'Red Baron', in reference to the World War One German pilot Manfred von Richthofen.

Reynolds had then remarked on how the Seeker was no baron, and that 'Red Flyer' was a more appropriate nickname. And the nickname had stuck with the human soldiers since.

Prowl narrowed his icy optics to Optimus and asked, seemingly ignoring everything the Lt. Colonel had stated "Prime, what happened after you shot at the Seeker?"

Optimus curtly nodded his helm and resumed.

"When the smoke had cleared, the Seeker was no longer in my direct line of vision. I tried searching for it, but I was taken by surprise when a missile fired behind me. I managed to avoid being hit, and the missile flew past me and detonated some distance ahead.

The Seeker hadthen went on to investigate if I had been hit by its missile, and I shadowed it to where the smoke was being emitted from the detonated missile. I saw a clear shot on the Seeker's silhouette amid the smoke and fired with the intent to deactivate it.

It dodged the plasma shot, but then it did the unthinkable. It activated its thrusters and stood directly within contact point with the plasma shot and took the hit directly to its back…"

Confused murmurs arose, but the Prime continued.

"The seeker had escaped right after, it must have bridged out before I could reach it" Prime motioned his servo to Reynolds, "I walked into the clearance where the Seeker stood mere seconds ago, and it immediately dawned on me why the Seeker had expressed a such suicidal feat"

Optimus vented out a long sigh, optics dimmed slightly.

"There were three injured human younglings on the ground. Had the Seeker not taken the hit, the younglings would have been incinerated."

Marine Captain Kurts uttered a huffed 'wow', Lt. Colonel Reynolds had his elbows rested on the table with his chin resting on his folded hands. Lips pressed into a thin line and gray eyes deep in thought.

"Why didn't you go after it? You could have killed it, especially if it were indeed the Death Angel" Prowl flatly asked.

"Because the three human younglings and their caretaker would have died from suffocation hadn't they been moved aw-"

Anger submerged in the Praxian "With all due respect, Prime, do you understand just how unreasonable it is to leave the single most lethal Decepticon to walk away for-"

"-For what, __Prowl__?" Optimus hissed dangerously to his __Second In Command__.

The Praxian narrowed his eyes and grudgingly acknowledged that the two humans in the room were glaring at him. Prowl tried to chose his next words carefully, he had to keep face:

"For unecessary action" Prowl tried to reason- "You could have sent a distress signal to your-"-and cursed himself at his own shortsightedness.

Mirage looked pissed, outright embarrassed by the level of ignorance the enforcer had just displayed.

"Prow… You ****should ****be knowledgeable that Skywarp emits a pulse of short-length radio waves to create a temporary interruption in all communication transmissions within a quarter mile radius from where they teleport. You know just how slagging stupid you sound right now!?"

Prowl suddenly felt jealous that he had been outwitted by a mere __human__, angry that his __twelve vorn old __leader acted irrationally, and humiliated in front of __said band of incompetent __**__**sparklings **__**by non other than a fellow Forged.

The Praxian hadn't uttered another word for the rest of the meeting.

* * *

A/N Edit (Adding A/N is more fun)

So what the hell is up with Prowl? Prowl is Forged: Born from The AllSpark. He spent his entire existence as an ageless immortal up until the AllSpark went bye-bye and now he's _not_ immortal and aging in the 'blink of an eye' from his perspective, he is undergoing a constant sense of existential crisis.

So on aging, I mentioned in the first chapter that the life expectancy of a Born/Sparked is 35ish vorns. Optimus is his early 12th vorn, and I am setting each vorn to be the equivalent of 2.4 years old (will repost this in Chapter 4's A/N for those who missed it), thereby making Optimus the equivalent of 29 years old.

And lastly:

Reviews motivate me. Leave a review, and I'll update a chapter weekly.

Edit: Formatting error fixed.


	4. Chapter 4

Interrogation

A/N:

Shout out to Siphon 117 for giving me the encouragement to write this chapter.

I referred to Starscream and Skywarp as 'they' in the previous chapter because to me, the notion of still using 'he' for a carrier/hermaphrodite is dumb as hell. Also, this Starscream will be taking a lot of the recklessness of the Unicron Trilogy Starscream (take the classic Starscream cowardice and twist it 180)

Warnings for this chapter: None

* * *

July 23rd 1983

Autobot Command Base: Earth

Allegheny Mountains, West Virginia

Optimus woke up from recharge with a choke hanging in his vocalizer. His heating systems activated to regulate his body temperature when it had dropped while he was still in recharge. Shaky intakes made the semi aware that he was awake, and no longer stuck in his own nightmares.

Exhaling a shaky outtake, the Prime slowly pulled his back up and rested his servos on his knees. He checked his internal clock and found that it was four twenty three in the morning.

He had went into recharge at midnight.

Optimus was finding himself restless for the second night in a row. He lifted one servo to cup his mask-less face. He felt even more exhausted than before he went to rest.

Why was he having nightmares of his mother again after so long?

Optimus wanted to hit himself right then for daring to think of his mother so dismissively, but he wasn't naive, he knew too disturbingly well that The Forgotten_ as his kind inconsiderately to referred them as_ were essentially vanished, gone, taken to an outsider's world where none of his kind has yet to manage to find. Pit, even if they did find it, the Quintessons would simply eradicate any investigative scouts before they could report their whereabouts.

And this war, __this pointless slagging war__, had left essentially no time for anyone to form a proper rescue expedition.

Shaking his helm from the processor ache, Optimus narrowed his optics and affixed his gaze on a data pad lying on his berth-side table.

Oh, he had tried to bring himself to re-read the reports yesterday, but he hadn't even laid a single digit on the pad.

Braving himself, Optimus reached out to grab the data pad with a shaky servo. He held it close to his face with uncertainty. His spark was pulsing rapidly, and his lifeblood was rushing fast in his veins. Nonetheless, he opened the Teletraan-1 files, even if he wanted to purge at the mere thought of reading it.

… Optimus only managed to read the logs prior the invasion before he hastily put the data pad back.

* * *

"Yes mom, I'm okay… I really am."

"Don't worry mom, there was an accident involving a wild fire and I'm alright now. I will be back to work next week… Physically? My leg is a little scratched up, but otherwise I'm fine… Honest"

"I will see you too in August mom.."

Herbert put the the handle back into the Touch A Matic phone, and turned to face the Federal agent that was folding his hands neatly behind his back.

A lie had been perfectly orchestrated by the Feds during the past two days to cover up the occurrence that took place where two alien military factions 'The Decepticons' and 'The Autobots' had clashed. Some random men with unreported records of illegal logging had been arrested and had the blame for a minor wildfire pinned on them.

It was messed up, and the five men who are now awaiting trial are going to face charges for involuntary arson that they never committed. Meanwhile, the true culprits were Starscream; the Decepticon that was going to kill him- but spared the children, and Optimus; the Autobot that nearly killed the children but spared the Decepticon for sparing said children. They both should have been held accountable for wildlife damages.

But, from what Herbert had learned during his brief conversation with Optimus prior arriving to this base, both Starscream and Optimus were high ranking individuals in their respective armies. So it would come to no surprise to Herbert that the would both be somewhat pardoned.

Perhaps Starscream would still take some blame, considering how he was the Autobot 'number one shoot to kill' enemy, a Death Angel, as Optimus told him.

Herbert __was there__, and he only had to meet the winged Decepticon once to know that the nickname was a load of bull. Unfortunately, he had to keep his lips tight. After all, Optimus Prime, Rylee, Dylan, and Ethan all had agreed to spew the same half-truth when it was time for each individual to be interrogated. And today was the day of the interrogation.

The Federal agent, Albert Chimes, had given Herbert fifteen minutes to contact his mother whom was living in the state of Virginia to inform her that he was alright while maintaining the lie he had been instructed to follow through with.

Herbert disliked the agent the moment he met him. The icy blue eyed, light blonde haired arrogant stuck up hadn't addressed Herbert with any sort of human connective vocabulary and shortened all his 'greetings' to 'Warshow'.

Not 'Herbert Warshow', not 'Mr. Warshow', just Warshow.

"Warshow, you are expected in the conference room. Come along now" The agent instructed.

As per old habit, Herbert grit his teeth but said nothing.

Walking down the hallways of Autobot base was haunting to Herbert. Each one of those 'Cybetronians' stood three to nearly five times his own standing height, and had a built of massive strength in comparison to his own frail human body. Some of them looked young and friendly, as they'd occasionally stop to wave at him or greet him as they did during the past two days. But there were the older looking others with a distant gleam to their eyes that didn't acknowledge his existence even if they happened to be looking directly at him.

Herbert made a mental note to himself to ask about this later once he was done with interrogations and regrouped back with the children.

* * *

The two had reached a room after taking an elevator down three stories underground. A cybertronian was waiting for them at the door. It looked grumpy with a hard frown on its face, it's body was mostly ocean blue, save for what passed as 'winglets' that were red and white, (Herbert had seen several Autobots with similar small wings, but he deduced that said Autobots couldn't fly since it seemed impossible from a visual standpoint that these wings could even provide lift, unlike the Decepticon he met that sported massive wings), and a cyan blue visor on over its eyes that only served to make it look more grouchy.

"Red Alert" Albert greeted flatly, and the cybetronian nodded to the agent then turned its head to address Herbert directly "Mr. Herbert Warshow" and back to the agent "Mr. Albert Chimes" Herbert inwardly smiled at the fact that this alien had a grasp around human formalities.

Red Alert unlocked the security panel and the door slid open.

"Gentlemen, you may come in." Red Alert addressed formally, and entered the room. Herbert followed after Albert, and was awestruck by how massive the room looked and felt. The ceiling was high enough for a crane storage warehouse. It was around fifty feet high, noticeably higher than the hallways.

Herbert followed Albert up the stairs on the right side of a giant rectangular table in the middle of the room. Once finally up, Herbert was instructed to take a seat between Albert, and another man in military uniform. Herbert never paid much attention to the army, so he couldn't guess his rank. The only thing the man's uniform managed to tell was that he was definitely from the Marines.

Looking ahead, Herbert saw another Cybertronian sitting next to Red Alert. It looked significantly shorter than Red Alert from the compared sitting height, and was mostly black with some of its silvery 'arms' being visible from the shoulder socket down to its elbows where it ended with blocky black 'gantlets'. The 'fins' on the top of its head were triangular, giving it the shape of almost cat like ears, Herbert mused. Its silvery face was mostly visible, save for the cyan visor it had over its eyes. Its lips were pressed together tightly, almost as though it was trying to suppress a frown.

Upon closer visual inspection, it looked like it had scars across its lips.

The Marine officer spoke:

"Gentlemen," he then waved his hand to the short Cybetronian ", Mahu."

'Mahu?' Herbert mentally questioned the word used to describe the short Cybetronian.

"We may begin."

All eyes were now Herbert, and Herbert felt his palms getting cold and sweaty from apprehension. Was he being one of the first to be interrogated or the last? Did they already interrogate Optimus? If so, what if something he said right now didn't check out with what Optimus had said? Or worst yet, what if Dylan did or was going to let his timidness get the better of him and 'spill the beans'?

Herbert played dumb before anyone could speak.

"Umm, what's a Mahu?" He asked sheepishly. The 'Mahu' in the room sighed irritably, almost as though they have been asked that question before, and waved its hand "The formal word humans are currently using to refer to the hermaphrodites of my kind."

Herbert gasped and uttered an intrigued 'What, really?' that went largely ignored, and was receiving glares from his fellow humans. "It was just a simple question…" He resumed his 'curious college guy' act, and fortunately, it seemed to work. Red Alert was half-smiling and 'he' looked down on a data pad, reading something that made the half smile morph into a genuine small smile.

This steered the interrogation to begin with Red Alert.

"Mr. Herbert Warshow; age twenty; born on June eight nineteen sixty three; blood type AB; current occupation is 'part time camp counselor in the YMCA-Virginia State joint summer camp program and second year full time biology student at Fairmont State University with second year first semester beginning on September eight; Parents are Mrs. Julia Warshow and Mr. Thomas Warshow; Criminal records, none."

Herbert wanted speak, but Red Alert beat him to the cut. "Mind telling us how a promising young man such as yourself ended up in the middle of a battlefield between two alien factions two days prior? Start from the beginning" Red Alert folded his hands on the table.

Nodding, Herbert began his explanation of how he ended up far away from campsite that day when he had to go search for three children that strayed from the camp. Eventually, he reached to the point where he ordered Rylee to take the two boys and run. Jazz interrupted him then.

"What were the colors of the missile?"

Herbert knew that he better not lie at this question. "Well besides the obvious Decepticon emblem on it, it was mostly stained white with red tail fins.. Couldn't make up any more details than that."

Jazz nodded, then asked. "How did the children survive the explosion?" Herbert explained how Rylee tackled the two boys to the ground, and how the kids ended up unconscious, __from his perspective, __he carefully added. Last thing he wanted was for one of the children to say they were conscious and for Herbert to contradict that statement.

Albert asked the next question.

"Now tell us, did you see the attacker?"

Herbert had to steel himself from biting his lips or showing any signs of acute discomfort. Again, it was impossible to lie now without compromising both Optimus and the children. He could, however, leave out the fact that the Starscream was going to kill him.

"I did."

Silence befell the room briefly, and was followed by a stern question from Jazz. "Describe it."

"I couldn't tell well at first from the smoke, but when it walked closer, I could see that it had large wings, a lithe body, and colored some shade of white and red with a long broad swor-"

_"_So it __was __indeed Starscream! That Seeker __bitch__!" The Marine officer slammed his fist into the table and yelled. The sudden act made Herbert flinch. Jazz bit their lips, Red Alert frowned, and Albert lifted a hand towards the Marine officer as a gesture for him to calm down. The middle aged military man retracted his balled fist from the table. The scowl on his face hadn't left him though.

"Umm, who's Starscream? And what is a Seeker?" Herbert said while stuttering a little from the fright the soldier gave him.

Jazz sighed "You can learn of that later, now focus." The tapped a finger to their head as a gesture "What did Starscream do then?"

Now Herbert found himself biting his lips. He dreadfully wondered how the kids would have fared under this much mental pressure. He spoke very cautiously.

"Well it-" "-They" Red Alert corrected him. Herbert nodded hastily ".. They walked amid the cloud of smoke and ash until the heard the children whimper. I- they just stood still and looked ahead at where the children were. Right then, a plasma shot was fired. It- They dodged it, but swiftly moved __towards it __to shield the children with their own body."

"... Did they see you?" Albert was the one to direct the question at him, and Herbert knew he had to be swift with his answer. "I wasn't sure if they had seen me or not, I was too terrified to think straight and my leg was hurting like hell, and my eyes were stinging from the smoke and heat. So, I really couldn't tell-"

"-But you could tell that Starscream was looking at the children?" Albert was trying to make him tumble in his words. Herbert countered logically. "Because it, I mean they, stopped moving when the kids had started whimpering, and turned their whole body towards the direction where I had seen Rylee tackle the children a minute or two earlier."

After that, Herbert's final statements were what he, Optimus, and the children had agreed to fabricate.

The interrogation had concluded, and Herbert was escorted out of the room by Albert.

"You will be sent back to your job starting next week" Albert said as they walked towards the elevators, "After your summer job ends, you will be transferred to working weekend shifts here under the guise of being a part time botanical assistant while you resume your college education." Herbert couldn't even protest as the Federal agent resumed talking. "The children will be transferred to Stuart Hall School where they will be staying there until they graduate grade school while being under close supervision by officials we will be appointing at that school"

_'___They were going to forcibly take the children away and toss them into a boarding school'__

"Like yourself, the children will be here every weekend, under the guise of it being a legal college sponsored internship" Albert then narrowed his icy blue eyes in warning "If you, or any of the children even mention the existence of the aliens once in public, the four of you will be taken under questioning and potential arrest for compromising national security. I advise you to remain silent up until the end of your camp job contract ending in August nineteenth. A Federal agent will be waiting for you at an address that will be sent to you via parcel with instructions"

Albert didn't add anything else, leaving Herbert to awkwardly look around and study the aliens in the hallway. One of them seemed to be drinking a thick neon blue mixture from a cube shaped glass. Was that some sort of food?

Curiousity bubbled once more, Herbert turned to Albert and began asking him questions:

"Hey, Albert! What is a Seeker? What is that Cybetronian drinking? Are some of those aliens really both man and woman at the same time?-"

Herbert kept on bombarding Albert with as many questions as he could possibly muster for the remainder of the day.

* * *

A/N:

It was always odd for me how little involvement the government had in most of the Transformers verse when it comes to cover ups and twisting the arms of witnesses. It would be far fetched for the Feds to act all SCP-Foundation level crazy, but at the same time they wouldn't be all happy-kappy and allow the Autobots to do whatever they wish with witnesses on soil that doesn't belong to them.

Starscream will make a second appearance in the next chapter.

Read and Review, and I will continue with my weekly updates.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N:

Damn it is fun to write this fanfic.

So I noticed that I have yet to write a chapter from the POV from the Decepticons, so I dedicated this chapters entirely to be from the perspective of the Decepticons. I also started watching war documentaries and reading some military books to understand how dysfunctional the Decepticon chain of command is, hence the name of this chapter.

Calculating approximate ages for the Born: Each vorn is the equivalent of 2.4 years age wise.

Warnings for this chapter: Megatron.

* * *

Chaotic Chain

July 30th, 1983

Decepticon Base on Earth.

"When are they expected to online?"

"Sir… The patient just recently got stabilized. They are no longer in the immediate danger of heat loss or infection of their energon stream. Their protoform sustained surface level burns, but nothing deep enough to leave permanent damages" Said the dermatology medic that was called to the Decepticon base on Earth. The ruby red mech was trying his best to remain polite as he addressed the towering figure of one of the Decepticon army commanders; Megatron.

Knockout was in his medical residency vorn, and he couldn't obtain his full license to open his practice nor operate autonomously until the end of the vorn. He would have never left the safety of the refuge planet, Caminus, and accepted this contract 'job' of treating a living weapon of mass destruction in the form of an a disturbingly attractive youngling if he wasn't so desperate for the money. His sparkmate was out of work for a while due to a work accident, the two were running out of savings, and the rations could sustain them only so much.

Eventually, Knockout had to go to the courthouse again to plea against being evicted, and he was placed on a waiting list for a government sponsored apartment- which would take a while for his status was un-prioritized because his sparkmate is an ex-Decepticon soldier.

Because of this, he had to figure out some sort of way to pay for his rent for the next stellar cycle.

One night, he returned back to his apartment to find his mate, Breakdown, talking to a fellow ex-Decepticon; Swindle. Knockout was apprehensive when he saw the mech well known for his black market services. The two ex-Decepticons had then explained to him that there is an injured Decepticon in need of immediate treatment for burn damages. Swindle then explained to him that it had to be swift and secretive. No one would know that he even left since he was on a leave before his next residency semester.

And that he was being offered payment in pure __gold.__ Not credits, not any currency that could falter at any moment, but gold.

Knockout accepted, and he was snuck on a planet unknown to him in secrecy via ground bridge. He doesn't know where this planet lies, nor why both the Decepticons and Autobots are fighting on it, nor is he allowed to leave this base to explore the planet outside. He was just here to treat a patient, take his money, and leave. He was thankful that they at least let him know of the time scales used on this planet.

The silver titan glared at him with optics as red and vicious as lava.

"You haven't answered my question" Megatron reminded coldly, and again, Knockout tried his best to steel himself.

"About four to six Earth days for them to wake up, another fifteen for them to be able to walk, and anywhere from seventy to eighty Earth days for them to recover enough to return to the battlefield." Knockout cursed himself for sounding as blunt as a Decepticon medic, but his mate informed him that this was the standard for medics when it came to communicating with superiors in the Decepticon army. And true to Breakdown's words, the rage in Megatron's optics dimmed just by a little. The Decepticon leader's optics were now more calculating.

"Is this an estimate based on Starscream's current condition only? Is it prone to change?"

Knockout nodded and said "Nothing is fully certain until they are lucid, and this is based solely on the average recovery rates for fliers when it comes to burn damages. The patient's wings aren't damaged at the protofrom level, only their back is. Otherwise, their recovery could take up to an Earth year."

"I see.." The silver mech narrowed his optics towards the unarmored lithe winged figure laying on their chest with wires hooked up to IVs and monitors throughout their chassis, bare helm, servos, and underneath the heavy bandaging on their wings and back. The Seeker was breathing naturally again after they had been on ventilation life support for a whole Earth week, with them screaming and crying a couple Earth of days prior falling unconscious. Megatron's second in command had barely clung to life, and Megatron had been genuinely worried that he would lose the most powerful soldier under his command.

No, not just his best soldier, Megatron thought as his optics wandered the whole of the unconscious Seeker's mostly bare frame. Although Starscream's exact sparking date was unknown, it was as of this Earth day in which the medical report for Starscream's spark estimated their age and possible sparking date, and Megatron had been keeping track of that date for a vorn.

Today Starscream turned seven and a half vorns old, a mature Seeker at last.

"Umm, Sir?"

Megatron turned his helm to the red medic who was staring at him with poorly masked revolt.

"Notify me of any changes in their health in the next solar cycle" The silver mech said coldly before heading out of the intensive care med bay unit, not caring to listen to the medic's 'yes sir'.

Once out of the room, Knockout stared at the door with disgust written on his faceplate, utterly repulsed by the way the mech had leered at the unconscious __youngling's__ body.

"What a fragging creep" The red medic whispered before any Decepticon assistant or medic could come and hear him.

* * *

August 2nd , 1983

Decepticon Base on Earth

"If we need to keep our current condition from worsening further while mining for energon, I suggest that our target for mining be where the Autobots's human allies wouldn't be willing to provide any air support should they discover the mining activity." Thundercracker, a large blue and white Seeker mech with broad wings, and spiked shoulder armor suggested from his standing position around the command room table. Next to him, stood the acting Third in Command, an olive green and dark lavender bulky mech Seeker that Thundercracker personally __loathed: __Thrust.

Thundercracker couldn't tell if Thrust was sneering at him due to the bulky mech's face mask, but Thrust's optics told him enough: _'___I hate everything you say'__

On Thundercracker's left stood Shockwave, the ex-Predacon turned Decepticon. The deformed one opticed and one armed purple mech nodded his helm in agreement. "It would be best to chose a country where the Autobot allies currently are at odds with. A communist country outside the Soviet Union perhaps?"

"A country in South America perhaps?" Came a suggestion from Barricade, a dark gray and black mech praxian that stood across the table from Thundercracker. Megatron, their commander, whom was standing next to Thrust, shook his helm in disagreement "Too close to the Autobot's primary human allies."

"How about in China? There should be some desert region there where we can use the terrain to our advantage" Exclaimed the third Seeker at the table, a lilac and relatively tall femme called Thunderblast.

All optics fell on Thundercracker. Being one of the most knowledgeable Decepticons on the base when it came to human anthropology, Thundercracker was the first to be asked for advising when it came to choosing the least populated locations. And since the resident ace of aces was bound to a med berth in a barely stable condition, they couldn't risk a bravado style assault on American territory like they had done merely twelve Earth days ago.

Thundercracker scoured his processor to think of the safest place for the Decepticon fliers to support the troops below without being shot down. It had to be a high terrain region, it also needed to have a jagged landscape, it needed to have a strong glare from the sun or from sandy desert to make it difficult for Autobot ground-to-air strike teams to have a clear shot at Decepticon fliers, and finally, it needed be easy for Decepticon fliers to throw Autobot troops off of tall ledges so they could fall to certain deaths. There could be one spot only.

"Although not in exactly in China, but rather mostly in Mongolia, the Gobi Desert Canyons will be our safest bet. We can scout ahead of time for any human activities in the area, track the movements of the Mongolian tribes so we can be extra cautious in avoiding detection.

The terrain is perfectly in our advantage over the ground based Autobots. Tall ragged hills, spires, and canyon cliffs deep enough to make any falling Autobot a dead Autobot. At this time of the year the temperatures should be extremely hot in midday, which the Autobots aren't as capable of tolerating. The glare of the sun should make it difficult for the Autobots to strike down fliers properly, and the clear skies will give our fliers full visual on the Autobots."

Megatron smirked triumphantly, and Thrust glared hatefully and enviously at Thundercracker.

"Excellent" Megatron said as he tapped his clawed digit at the Mongolian Gobi Desert visible on the holographic map of Earth on the round table. "We shall begin scouting tonight, monitor the human activities for an earth week, then start locating a potential energon deposit the day after. I expect a deposit to be located by mid August. Once our rations are stocked enough to support us for the next six Earth months, we can return to our original objective on this planet."

"Yes sir!" Came the unanimous response from the Decepticons in the room.

* * *

August 3rd, 1983

Decepticon Base on Earth

True to the red medic's word, Starscream came online. Albeit, the young Seeker ace was silent, with foggy optics in their natural, and so _beautiful _colors. The young Seeker's seldom seen unmasked face was tired and looked pale. The young Seeker was still under the effects of heavy sedatives to prevent them from panicking over being confined to a medical berth.

Megatron watched those optics, colored as orange as the setting sun on a warm summer day and lined by an emerald neon line underneath Starscream's orange optics. The rest of the young Seeker's optics were encircled by a jet black ring that ran past the emerald line down their cheek plates. It made the young Seeker's optics resemble that of the exotic Earth felines; cheetahs.

Starscream's trinemates, Thundercracker and Skywarp, stood not far away from their young trine leader.

Megatron was making both Starscream's trinemates and the guest medic feel uncomfortable.

The silver mech left the medical room shortly after staring at the unaware young Seeker's frame a tad too long.

* * *

August 5th, 1983

Decepticon Base on Earth

Starscream stared blankly at the star shaped yellow-orange jadeite amulet in their servos as they laid back on the medical berth. The young Seeker turned their now Decepticon red optics to their commander, Megatron.

"What is this?" Starscream asked politely.

Megatron flashed a sharp fanged grin at the young seeker and said in the gentlest voice he could muster "It is your birthday gift, Starscream."

Starscream felt a surprised choke hang in their vocalizer. The young Seeker knew that this specific color of Jadeite was rare, and the piece in their servo must have come from a sizable rough rock. It must have taken Megatron a while to get his servos on it. Starscream didn't know what to feel, for this was the first time Megatron had given them any gift in the two vorns they had been serving under him.

For one thing, the young Seeker was happy to have someone acknowledge the fact that it was their birthday cycle with a gift when even their own trinemates hadn't gifted them anything. However, Starscream was also suddenly apprehensive. Why did Megatron decide to gift them?

"For me, why?" The young Seeker whispered without looking into Megatron's optics.

Standing besides Starscream, Megatron chuckled "Because you earned it."

Optics shuttering in confusion, Starscream finally turned to stare up at their leader and asked "Earned what, sir?"

Megatron knew that he had to act with surgical caution during the span of the next few seconds. Megatron bowed his helm courteously and gently placed his clawed servo over the amulet in Starscream's servos without touching any of the Seeker's digits to prevent triggering the Seeker's haphephobia. "My trust, Starscream, my trust."

As soon as he said that, Megatron calmly withdrew his servo, and smirked inwardly when he saw the tension leaving the young Seeker's wings.

"Starscream, it would be best for you to fully recover. You will not be joining the Gobi Desert operation on the front, however, you are free to submit your analysis and comments on the operation progress. You may begin to do so in two Earth days' time from now."

The young Seeker nodded solemnly then said in a medicine strained raspy voice "I will review the proposal for the operation at dawn, and submit my comments on it by noon tomorrow."

Megatron nodded his helm in acknowledgement. "As you wish," he played along ", recharge tonight. Your body is still strained. You may begin your work at four thirty in the morning tomorrow."

"As you command, sir."

Bidding the young Seeker a swift recovery and a painless recharge, Megatron left the med bay recovery wing and headed to his quarters. Once in the privacy of his room, Megatron chucked darkly. Oh, it had been so easy to play his Second in Command like that!

Megatron had gathered that Starscream had an affinity for taking flights around shallow watered beaches on Earth. Upon reading on shallow watered beaches, Megatron had learned that organic echinoderms called starfish tend to be found in those beaches. And from back on Cybetron, Megatron knew that Starscream had an affinity for collecting colorful rocks.

All Megatron had to do was pick an Earth rock in the color of Starscream's optics, have it carved into a shape they may be fond of, and gift it to them as a token of approval gift on their creation day. And that was all it took for Megatron to momentarily bypass the young Seeker's fear of physical contact.

There was a lot that Megatron had planned in mind for his beautiful Second in Command. But first, Megatron needed to secure a closer position to the already terminally ill Decepticon supreme commander, Megazarak, than that of Scoroponk- the next in line to being the supreme commander of the Decepticons. Once Megatron secures his position to be next-in-line, he will get rid of that Predaconish pathetic excuse of a Decepticon commander in a sparkbeat, and then he will declare himself lord of the Decepticons and take Starscream as his queen.

* * *

A/N:

Cor blimey, Megatron is creepy! As he should be. I don't know how so many think Megatron is remotely sympathetic when I see Megatron as nothing short of Stalin, so don't expect him to be a good-two-peds in ever. He's a fucked up war monger that believes he can take whatever he wishes by force.

Also, I never liked how rarely the Decepticon chain of command chaos was rarely discussed in the fanon beyond 'Soundwave is thrid in command and Starscream is second in command.) A couple of hours of reading is all it takes to understand how a chaotic power-hunger driven army would function IRL.

Let me know your thoughts, and I will keep on updating weekly. (I typed this chapter in one sitting)


	6. Chapter 6

A/N:

It takes a lot of determination on my part to post a new chapter this frequently.

I got new water color pencils to try out a few designs for Starscream. I came up with a cool one but wanted to slap myself when I realized that the design didn't reflect any real-life fighter jet. So, I will redesign Starscream based on a late 70s fighter jet.

Enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Healing

August 16th, 1983

Decepticon Base on Earth:

There were only a few things the red medic was at the very least grateful for on this contract 'job'.

One: he had a friendly bodyguard to escort him from his quarters to the med bay. That bodyguard was a young grounder mech that went by the name Demolisher. Two: the patient he was assigned to treat was quite endearing and well spoken.

When he had first arrived on this base, Knockout was terrified upon finding out just __who __he was supposed to treat. However, upon learning that the deadly Seeker was just a youngling, Knockout felt a little conflicted. Now, after he had numerous conversations with the young Seeker, Knockout pitied them, for the young Seeker had displayed the warning signs of a number of behavioral and emotional disorders.

The patient had a strong averse to physical contact- yet at the same time would be __terrified __if left alone for more than a couple of joors. Whenever Knockout or any other person spoke with the patient, the patient either avoided optic contact or stared at the person addressing then for far too long without shuttering their optics once. More signs of behavioral problems included the patient tapping at objects while speaking with others, sudden jerky movements for no apparent reason, being angry one moment then completely emotionless the next, getting alarmed upon hearing sudden beeping noises, and taking everything they hear too literally. Knockout tested his patient by telling them a series of punchline jokes, but they all fell flat on his patient- confirming that the patient may have trouble understanding humor as well.

How did a Seeker youngling end up in the Decepticon high ranks and what chain of events had caused the Seeker to display such behavioral problems was something the red mech dared not linger his processor on for too long. But Knockout was a doctor, and he was going to try his best to understand what was truly going on with the young Seeker and see what he could do to help them out, even if by only just a little.

"Woah there! Steady!" Knockout warned as his patient keened in pain after taking a couple of quick steps. Knockout stood only a little far from behind his patient, but not too close to make the patient panic. The patient steadied themselves and took smaller steps as instructed.

It would take the Seeker some twenty more Earth days to walk normally.

* * *

August 19th, 1983

Allegheny Mountains, West Virginia

Sammie's Gas Station:

There were two things of interest on Herbert's lap as he sat on the bench outside of the convenience store at Sammie's Gas Station. The first thing was a cardboard parcel that did not display the sender address nor the sender name. The second was a paycheck of $1620 for the six and a half weeks in which Herbert had worked as a camp counselor. Next to Herbert's left leg was his bag of belongings.

Herbert wished he could go in and buy a cold beer1, but he knew that he better be sober when he was about to go to wherever the hell this parcel will instruct him to. Herbert tucked his paycheck neatly in a safe pocket inside his back and zipped the bag back up then reached for his pocket key-chain knife to open the parcel.

Inside was a large brown envelope that a sticker on it saying:

__Do Not Open Now__

There was also an envelope that had a sticker on it saying:

__Open Now__

Herbert obliged and opened the envelope with his pocket knife. Herbert carefully pulled out a map and a letter and began reading the instructions on the letter:

__Walk to Mt Freedom Drive and Upper Timber Ridge Road.__

__A map is provided for you, do not talk to anyone.__

__Your Escorts will be waiting for you there.__

__Do not make any transactions with anyone.__

__If someone speaks with you, dismiss them.__

Herbert sighed and tucked the letter back in the envelope. 'This is too fucking creepy' Herbert thought as he tucked the parcel in his bag, got up, took his bag, and began walking without the use of the map. He knew this village quite well, it would be redundant for him to use a map.

Thankfully for Herbert, no one spoke with him as he walked down on U Timber Ridge Rd towards his destination. It was scorching hot on this August midday, and Herbert was glad he had filled out his water bottle prior reading the accursed letter. Herbert noticed a parked car on the distance on Mt. Freedom Drive.

Once he was almost there, Herbert figured the car to be a black Mini-Cooper with two white stripes. Standing outside the car with hands folded neatly was Albert.

"Warshow, get in" The Federal agent coldly instructed. But Herbert was occupied with observing the car. Herbert couldn't help but notice that there was something off about the way the sunlight reflected too weakly off the metal surface and he reached out to touch the hood of the car.

It felt oddly cool for a metal sheet under such intense heat. Herbert slid his hand down to car's header panel and traced the oddly flaccid and bruised silvery bands that were quivering for some reason and slid his fingers in the gap between the bands-

Albert shoved Herbert away from the car and the young man fell back on the pavement- feeling the palms of his hands receive a few cuts from the impact with the gravel on the pavement.

Herbert looked up after grunting in pain to meet the eyes of the now enraged Federal agent.

"Do not touch the car! Not on the exterior, nor the interior!" Albert snapped at the Herbert, then tossed a pair of heavy duty gloves from his briefcase at the confused man. "Wear these, and keep your fucking hands to yourself!"

Herbert grit his teeth and said nothing, noticing that the agent himself was wearing a pair of heavy duty gloves. Herbert put the gloves given to him on and got up whilst swearing under his breath and clearing the dust off his clothes.

The agent went inside the driver's seat after warning Herbert that he would be susceptible to punishment should he touch any of the car's interior.

Herbert shakily opened the passenger seat on the two-seat car and sat down as carefully as he could to avoid triggering the agent further. He was about to reach for the seat belt when Albert hissed _"___Do not" __at him, causing him to cease and place his hands on his knees to avoid getting in any more physical contact with the car.

"Next time, try not to volunteer for something you are that obviously uncomfortable with." Albert said out of nowhere.

"... Who are you talking to?" Herbert said. The young man then gasped when he heard the car engine start in a bizarre wheeze-like sound without Albert touching anything. The car began driving itself, and Albert told Herbert not to panic.

Herbert wanted to yell in shock, but then something began to dawn on him when he smelled a very familiar scent.

_'___Wait… Just wait a minute… That scent, that scent… It smells like the aliens? How? Come to think of it… The car is too humid, and nowhere as hot as it should be for a car with locked windows left under this scorching heat. So, how on earth could it be relatively cool on both its exterior and interior? __

__Hell, not only that, but its exterior felt way too smooth to be an iron sheet. It felt as though I was touching a giant reptilian scale… But those bands, they were almost soft to the touch… How is that possible?__

__But those aren't even the biggest oddities, far from it. This asshat's reaction to me touching a fucking car is by far the biggest oddity. He got pissed because I touched a fucking car, and he tossed a pair of gloves in my face and ordered me to not touch a car that can drive itself somehow and then he spoke to it-'__

Herbert's froze in place, the dull pain in his palms ceasing.

There was something that Herbert had witnessed more than once during his stay at the Autobot base. Many of the aliens displayed the ability to shift their limbs and 'transform them' into a completely different shape, and then 'transform' them back to the way they used to be. But this was a car that he was sitting inside of, surly it would be quite far fetched for the aliens to morph into the shape of the car…

But those colors…

Herbert swallowed the cold lump of bile stuck in his throat.

Those colors… Mostly black save for two white stripes, silvery exposed arms and face, scarred lips..

__Scarred lips.__

__Scarred bands.__

**'**__This can't be… This fucking can't be real…'__

A shaky, and scared whisper barely escaped Herbert's lips:

"Jazz?"

__/What!?/__

The voice that emitted from the 'car's' radio was unmistakable. The 'car' was indeed Jazz.

"Jesus fucking Christ…" Herbert whispered in shock, his head feeling heavy and his stomach unpleasant. He was sitting __inside a living thinking alien.__

"Get me out…"

Herbert has been through enough madness this past month, but this was disturbing on a deeper level.

"GET ME OUT!" Herbert screamed.

"Warshow, calm down!" Albert shouted, but Herbert was starting to shiver and was on the verge of having a panic attack.

Jazz suddenly braked on the side of the road, and Herbert tried to open the door immediately. However, the door handle had morphed away completely.

__/Hey, new guy. Calm down. If you are being creeped out right now, please do try your best to remember that you gave me quite a fright a little earlier. So cut the slag, and stay put, will ya?/__

Herbert was far from calm, but he started to inhale deeply to ease the tension in his muscles. Jazz then nervously added:

__/By the way mechs, don't mention anything that happened to anyone. Last thing I want is for my sparkmate to find out/__

Albert nodded and said that he will keep the earlier incident off the record, while Herbert blinked in confusion. "What's a sparkmate?" he asked.

"-Spouse" Albert responded before Jazz, and Herbert blinked twice at Albert then blinked again at the radio. "You're married?"

__/Yes, and his name is Prowl, and he wouldn't be too happy if he found out that you technically touched me./__

Herbert snorted, "I am an alien to your kind, I wouldn't be attracted to your kind in any way"

Jazz chuckled through the radio.

__/He still would be slagging pissed/__

Herbert rolled his eyes and muttered something along the lines of 'sounds like an obsessive asshole' and heard Albert scoff at that, as if agreeing with him.

".… I didn't mean it" Herbert said in apology.

__/I know, don't ya worry about it/__

Jazz seemed friendly, Herbert thought to himself. Silently, he wished there would be more friendly faces in the Autobot base. After all, it was very likely that he would never be able to do anything autonomously in his life and would be bound to serving the secrecy of the aliens for, quite possibly, the rest of his life.

The engine started, and they were on the move towards the base again.

* * *

Starscream sat cross legged on the med berth. In their servos were two data pads displaying two different surveillance feeds. One was being recorded by a flight drone in Mongolia, and the other was directly from Laserbeak, who was shadowing the vehicle-mode of whom Starscream suspected to be Jazz.

Although they could give out the order to kill the saboteur right now, they also would be killing the human mech that technically saved them by standing between them and the Prime. Starscream decided that they would spare the human only this once in gratitude, but they would kill him the next time they meet him should he join forces with the Autobots.

::Starscream to Laserbeak, retreat back to base and document your mission outcome::

::__Affirmative__::

Once the footage is handed over to the analysts, they would deduce whether or not Starscream was right about suspecting that the Autobot base could be in the Allegheny Mountains region in West Virginia. It was a possibility, since the Auobot response to last month's raid had been swift and unusually well organized with no window for communication lines to be safely established on the Decepticon end.

Starscream sighed when Laserbeak had cut the transmission. Starscream turned off that data pad and sat it on their lap, then reached out to withdraw a certain star shaped emblem from their subspace to inspect it while the footage of the other transmission was still running.

The emblem had a luster as warm as this solar system's star, and was in the color of their real optics.

Why had Megatron given them this emblem as a token of trust? Did Megatron finally appreciate their efforts and showed them a display of appreciation?

The young Seeker hoped so.

* * *

September 2nd, 1983

Allegheny Mountains, West Virginia

Autobot Base on Earth:

::Red Alert to Prime, Jazz, Prowl, Arcee, Ironhide, Chromia! Decepticon mining activity detected in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia! Report to the Command Room immediately!::

::Prime to Red, I am on my way. Has Mirage been notified?::

::Negative sir, I will inform him to notify the Central Intelligence Agency::

::Prowl to Red. Jazz and I are on our way::

::Arcee to Red. I am on my way::

::Ironhide to Red. Chromia and I are on our way::

Optimus was already attaching his weapons after the sudden onlining from recharge at what his internal clock told him to be three twelve in the morning. The semi was thoroughly surprised that the Decepticons have managed to secure a mining site in such a short period of time, and he hoped that the Decepticons hadn't transported enough raw energon to their base in time.

Mongolia's landscape is going to prove lethal to the Autobots if they were to go fight off the Decepticons there ill prepared, even if their Air Commander wasn't going to be present.

But if Starscream were to be there, Optimus would make sure that the Seeker dies.

* * *

A/N:

*1: Herbert would be able to purchase alcaholic beverages in the State of West Virginia back in 1983 if he was over the age of 19.

No way in hell can someone grow up in a warzone without having at least several behavioral problems. I myself attest to this having grown up in one... That can include having preexisting conditions such as Aspergers Syndrome to be worsened, risk developing: panic disorder; haphephobia; mesophobia; anxiety disorder; and C-PTSD.

I'm taking a lot of SCP Foundation Wiki inspiration when it comes to writing the human characters to make them somewhat effective in their presence despite their shortcomings.

Anyhow, the next chapter will finally involve a full on battle front between both the Decepticons and Autobots.

Please leave a review or two, I could use some motivation to write.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N:

So Real Life prevented me from submitting a chapter last week...

Anyhow, the story now begins to unfold, and please do try wracking your brain to try to figure out just who is the NOT oc mentioned in the beginning of the chapter. Good luck!

Also, spelling errors everywhere because I typed this in one go. I will likely fix it all tomorrow.

Warnings for this chapter: None

* * *

Desert Wings

_The warm summer air was filled with the rich ocean breeze. Vast and distant clouds scattered across the sky, illuminated pink by the fading light of the setting sun. It was a little cold in spite of the summer skies._

_Looking up, the north star was visible…. However, it looked off. Almost as if it was not supposed to be there._

_It was displaced._

_Not only the north star, but a number of constellation did not seem to be where they belonged._

_Nonetheless, the sky looked beautiful, more so than ever before. The stars have never shone so clearly that early into sunset._

_Which brought things into question…_

_Why here? Where is here? When is here?_

_Looking down to find two bare pale and bloodied feet digging into the now cooling sand of the beach. The skeletal remains of starfishes and the shells of clams were scattered about upon in looking over the beach. Looking back on the ocean itself to admire the way light glistened on the shallow beach._

_Mesmerizing._

_A gust of cool wind gushed from behind, causing the simple tattered blue tunic to dance about, and the long strands of silvery hair to fly by and scrape at a pale face._

_It was beautiful, serene, and quiet._

_But the island was sinking, and there was nobody else left alive. Neither on the island nor anywhere else in the world for that matter. This was the end for everyone, this was their choice._

_To keep fighting one another, in a pointless war._

_A sad chuckle suddenly filled the hollow silence. Words that should not exist were uttered to nobody but the sole remaining figure, standing alone on a dying world._

_"The sword called for its master, and answered its masters wishes. The sword will call for its master again, and obey its masters wishes again._

_I have fulfilled my role as the wielder, and I have failed to stop them from abusing its power for their own greed._

_Because of this, I wished for the sword to destroy them all, and to create this world anew."_

_"... Do not let them use the sword. No matter what, please, stay away from those who wish to abuse the swords power."_

_The line of vision was blurring with tears, causing the ocean to look like a scattered ray of light that was illuminating the drowning world. Except, the light itself was drowning too, and it was far too late to stop it from drowning, for this was the last sunset on this island._

_"It is too late to stop it now. The sword has found its wielder again. All I can do is warn you…"_

_"No matter what you do, do not listen to the **other**. Do not be tempted by it like I have. It only seeks destruction, not solutions."_

_"Please…"_

_The tears streamed down the pale and dying cheeks._

_"Let us not make that mistake again"_

* * *

September 7th, 1983

Decepticon Base on Earth:

::Commander Megatron to Stacrscream! This is an emergency, report to the command room immediately!::

Starscream onlined with a startled gasp, unaware of what was happening, their bizarre dream, and now this sudden transmission from their commander. Optics shuttering in confusion, the young seeker replied hastily.

::Megatron sir! I am on my way!::

The Seeker rubbed a servo over their aching helm, and got up while wincing. The could walk alright, and they were no longer confined to a med bay and were back in their own quarters. However, they still couldn't run nor fly for that matter.

Groaning, Starscream slid their face mask over their face and opened a transmission line.

::Air Commander Starscream to Thundercracker and Skywarp! I am requesting for the three of us to be warped into the command room! This is an emergency!::

::….. Thundercracker to Starscream. What's the emergency?::

::Details have yet to be provided, hurry up!::

::Noted.. Skywarp, get up!::

The transmission line ended and the young Seeker almost tried to go reach for their swords out of instinct, but stopped upon remembering that they were on recovery watch, and as such, currently prohibited from combat. The seeker sneered angrily and grit their denta in frustration.

Starscream was a warrior, and they were supposed to be in the front lines no matter what! Yet here they were being incompetent.

The familiar glow and signal static that accompanied their purple trinemate appeared on their line of sight. Moments after, Skywarp and Thundercracker were standing before Starscream. Wasting no time, not even seconds to say 'hello' to one another, Skywarp gripped a servo from each of their trinemates and warped out of Starscream's quarters and into the command room.

Starscream gasped momentarily then pressed their lips together firmly. The command room was already crowded. Nothing odd, nor unexpected. Truthfully, the Decepticons had expected the Autobots to ambush them last week, and Laserbeak had more or less confirmed that the Auobots were aware of the mining activities since at least the fourth of this month. A counter plan was already in place for the ambush, and they made it seem like they weren't aware that the Autobots were aware in order to catch them off guard and to hopefully kill off their commander.

But it seemed that, judging by Megatron's stumped facial expression, that something else was going on.

* * *

"Decepticons" Megatron began addressing the highest ranking Decepticons on base that were gathered at the command table. Starscream, Thrust, Shockwave, Thundercracker, Soundwave, Thunderblast, Barricade, and Skywarp. There were relatively few members of notable rank in the room_ and the base_ because of the level of secrecy of their mission on Earth. Only a select few were meant to know.

"We have found it…." A sharp fanged smile cracked on the silver mech's lava red Decepticon eyes illuminating in the dim room like molten magma in the night.

"Never would we have guessed that it would be at that deposit, but we just received confirmation from the field." The grin stretched further, "We have just discovered a cavern, and in there lies one of the most crucial of the thirteen weapons; the Star Saber"

Murmurs and exited whispers filled the room, yet they all fell on deaf audials for one Seeker. Megatron took immediate notice that his second in command looked desynchronized, their optics dim and their wings twitching at the tip.

"How… did it get there?" The young Seeker uttered, confusing Megatron in the process.

"What do you mean by that?" Megatron was aware that his second in command would never say anything without a definitive reason, so he patiently waited for an answer. The murmurs quited down and optics wandered from Starscream to Megatron, expecting an answer.

The young seeker shook their helm slightly and said "I thought the sword would be underwater…" Before anyone could object, the seeker added "Perhaps it wasn't the sword that drowned, but an add-on"

To Megatron the Seeker's words fell flat. Nothing Starscream had just uttered made any coherent sense.

"Pardon me, Air Commander, but why would you assume that the sword would have been underwater?" Came a callous response from Thrust who barely managed to avoid sounding mocking.

Starscream simply replied "I had a hunch that it could have been on a sunken island, but I guess that wasn't the case…." The Seeker's optics lit up "Commander, is the intel positive? Is there a visual confirmation?"

Megatron, Soundwave, and Thunderblast shook their helms. "Negative, no confirmation as of yet. Intel provided by area mapping."

"Then we need to hurry there before the Autobots get there first! They would have likely noticed by now!" Starscream exclaimed loudly with an edge of urgency that made Megatron furrow his brow ridges.

"Starscream, you cannot join on the mission to extract the swo-"

"I MUST GO!" The Seeker suddenly yelled, and Megatron caught glimpse of Skywarp sharply elbowing the young seeker in the hip, but Starscream remained unfazed.

The silver mech offlined his optics for several seconds, his processor trying to come up for an answer for his SIC's sudden act of insubordination. This was not a new behavior from the reckless Seeker, but Starscream had never sounded that desperate to throw themself in the fire before.

Optics online once more, Megatron gave Skywarp a command "Skywarp, take Starscream to the med bay and reach for Knockout to attend to Starscream"

The young Seeker tried to protest, but Skywarp would not dare go against their commander's word. Skywarp clung to the Seeker and warped them out of the command room.

"What a sparkling" Thrust jeered at the absent Seeker and received a glare from Thundercracker.

Megatron narrowed his optics to his TIC in warning, and turned back to his subordinates.

"We will proceed to extract the sword tonight before the Autobots manage to get their first. Abandon the mining site once the Autobots enter it and pretend that we have been overwhelmed. Once the Autobots believe that the mine is there, detonate the bombs in place there inside the mine's entrance walls and then detonate the green cloud bombs from within the mine itself.

This move will cause the Autobots to panic once they realize that all of their comrades inside the mine have perished. And that will give us the momentum over them to finish the rest of the troops off or at the very least cause them to retreat, giving us the opportunity to go extract the sword safely.

And, Thrust. I expect you to go through with your air raid on the Autobots right after the mine collapses to distract them from reaching to the collapsed tunnel. This will give the green cloud enough time to kill the Autobots trapped within the mine."

Shockwave interjected. "What if the plan to lure the Autobots inside the mine fails? How do we even convince them to go there?"

Megatron smirked and replied "We will emit the same signal we received from the area scan in the underground cave and re-emit it from within the mine and act as though the sword is there.

_And if even that fails, then all troops shall be prepared for an escape save for all fliers who will then carpet bomb the area with green cloud bombs. Fliers are immune to the toxins, it should severely impair the Autobots on the ground long enough for them to call for a retreat. We will even leave green cloud landmines within the swords cave for the Autobots to step on if we have to and wait for them to die there before entering the cave ourselves"_

The grin turned into a low cackle, "**We won't fail**"

* * *

September 7th, 1983

Gboi Desert, Mangolia:

A cool gust of dry wind stroked the face mask on Optimus Prime. He could still feel the wind gently stroking his optics, helm, shoulders, cloak, and his non existing wings. Frowning, Optimus was once again reminded of the cruel phenomenon known as 'phantom limb', which made an amputee feel as though their missing limb was still physically there.

It has been ages since he lost his wings, and he never had the chance to fly once….

Whenever Optimus thought about it, his processor felt numb with the realization that he technically was neither grounder nor flier. He was a nobody, pretending to be a grounder, longing to be a flier.

Optimus steeled himself and shook off the pointless thoughts off his mind. He had no time for internal crisis, he had to defeat Decepticons in order to obtain the sword and keep it as far away as possible from the corrupt reach of Megatron.

The Autobots would have been fooled by that signal they deciphered two Earth hours ago, but Optimus was positive that the signal hadn't originated from the mine's location. Optimus felt the sword's discovery five Earth hours ago, and he was sure that the direction was below ground, not above it.

After much objection from his advisers, Optimus remained insistent that he was going to enter the underground cave by himself once they found it. And that the Autobots will provide cover by protecting the entrance of that cave for as long as possible, giving Optumus the time he needs to safely extract the sword.

Which would not take him long to find, since the Matrix will serve as his guide to the sword.

And yet… Optimus wondered sadly as he stared up at the vast starry sky above him, the galaxy's disk cutting into the sky. The sword did not seem responsive towards him, and Optimus was not sure that he would be able to extract the sword.

Optimus ran into the desert on his lonesome, his fellow Autobots already waiting to bridge into the midst of the valley where the mine laid at a moment's notice.

One servo transformed into a blaster, and the other into a blade. Optimus was ready to fight off the Decepticons no matter their numbers. He must not allow them to get the sword no matter the cost.

Once he was within ten miles from the site, Optimus fired at the sky, signaling for the Autobot troops stationed eighteen miles behind him to call for the ground bridge. As soon as he fired, Optimus ducked to avoid an air torpedo that detonated some thirty meters behind him. The glassy shards from the melted quartz sand pelted his frame, but didn't penetrate through his thick armor and natural armor.

Seven shots fired at the sky from seven different direction, each three miles from the other. Optimus heard the flier that shot at him transform and fly after the location of one of the fired missiles.

Good, so the flier hadn't seen him, otherwise he would be swarmed by Decepticon fliers within seconds. The divergence had succeeded, and Optimus ran further ahead as fast as he could. He had been wise enough to paint over his true colors and wore a cloak to hide himself, and was using a signal dampener.

Optimus needed to remain invisible for as long as possible.

* * *

A/N:

It amazes me to no end how rare it is for both Decepticons and Autobots try to outwit one another by planning several steps ahead and keeping as many fail safes in : A thanatos gambit as the TV Tropes Wiki refers to it.

Read and REVIEW

See ya in the next chapter :D


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